Last night, Lewis Hamilton co-chaired the Met Gala — marking the first time a Formula One driver has ever done so. Several sportspeople have had the honour before but, with Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Naomi Osaka among them, the annual event has historically shown a predilection toward tennis. With Hamilton’s appointment, however, it appears there is a new sport du jour — and one with a podium-topping popularity that extends well beyond Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

For, around the globe and in every echelon of the fashion world, Formula One is the new top player. It’s the rising star; the one to watch — the hot commodity attracting some serious investment. Last October, LVMH announced a 10-year sponsorship deal with the sport, worth close to £750 million. More and more of its drivers are being tapped for brand ambassadorships, many for watch manufacturers — George Russell for IWC, Esteban Ocon for Bianchet, Jack Doohan for H. Moser & Cie. — but also for fashion houses and luxury designer labels. Over at the Lawrence Stroll-owned Aston Martin Aramco team (Stroll, coincidentally, co-chaired the 2004 Met Gala alongside Anna Wintour and Renée Zellweger), Fernando Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll now spend their days bedecked in Boss, both trackside and for wider public appearances.

Hamilton in custom Tommy Hilfiger at the Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024

Hamilton wearing British brand Wales Bonner to co-chair the Met Gala 2025. Image: Alamy

Because these faces, once hidden inside helmets, have moved up the celebrity grid of late — and are now worth almost as much off the track as they are on. Thanks to exponential social media growth and high-octane Netflix docuseries Drive to Survive, eyes remain glued to these drivers’ wardrobes long after they’ve hung up their race suits. Aston Martin’s Boss partnership began in 2022, and sister brand Hugo signed a sponsorship deal with Racing Bulls last year; Giorgio Armani has been dressing everyone at Scuderia Ferrari since 2021. Today, even teams themselves are dictating what their drivers wear, with Mercedes-AMG Petronas recently appointing Eleanor Coleman, previously a marketing exec in the beauty industry, its first ever ‘driver styling coordinator’. Coleman’s job is simple: to ensure team drivers George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli remain well-turned-out — and ahead of the curve — at all times.

“Stylists have played a role in our sport for several years,” Richard Sanders, chief commercial officer of Mercedes-AMG Petronas, tells Luxury London. “But typically only around specific studio shoots or individual activations, such as red carpet moments.” The creation of this new role, he adds, is a bid to both strengthen partnerships with fashion brands, but also establish a sense of continuity and personal style for each driver.

“There was no eureka moment,” says Sanders of the decision to appoint an in-house stylist, “but more a gradual evolvement in our approach to fashion. Fashion has become ever more important in recent years as not only has the sport grown, but it’s also crossed over into other sports and culture.”

The global Formula One fanbase has skewed considerably younger and increasingly female in recent years, says Sanders, which he believes has turned more fashion brands’ heads. “Brands which see the value of partnering with teams and drivers to promote their clothing ranges,” he adds. “We have shifted our approach to reflect this. As a global sport, we’re in a privileged position where we can communicate with many different people — and fashion is another avenue in which we can do that.”

Netflix has helped. In 2023, BlackBook Motorsport reported the average value of a Formula One team to be £1.41 billion — a 279 per cent increase from 2019, the year Drive to Survive dropped its first season. And, while Sanders acknowledges that increased interest in the sport is due to “multiple factors”, he says “the success and added exposure of Drive to Survive is one”.

The series, which recently released its seventh season, has contributed to a 70 per cent jump in US race viewership in the last three years, according to ESPN figures. It has also fostered a new wave of household names, with drivers including Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc being propelled to levels of fame most former drivers could only dream of. Image management, says Sanders, has been a key part of this. “With our two drivers, we work hand-in-hand in enabling them to find their own styles as individuals. They’re both young, cool, connect with a global audience and can bring something fresh.”

Carlos Sainz Jr in the Hackett SS25 campaign

Max Verstappen modelling for AlphaTauri

Other teams may not yet have dedicated, in-house stylists (although it’s likely just a matter of time), but many of their drivers have already been appointed as ambassadors to specific fashion brands. Carlos Sainz Jr. races for Atlassian Williams Racing — a team sans stylist or official fashion sponsor — and was recently announced as the new face of Hackett (for whom Jenson Button also once modelled). The British brand’s chief marketing officer, Mark Blenkinsop, similarly credits Drive to Survive with the sport’s newfound cachet.

“It has attracted younger audiences which, coupled with the explosion of social media content around each driver means far more exposure of a Formula One driver’s life and lifestyle,” Blenkinsop explains. “And yet, there are only 20 drivers — in which other global sports platform are there so few athletes competing?”

After money and exposure, then, perhaps exclusivity is the third driving force behind Formula One’s fashion revolution. There are an estimated 542 footballers currently competing in the Premier League, 1,696 players in the NFL, and 1,814 professionals ranked on the ATP Tour. As such, it’s tricky for brands to know who to back. But, in Formula One, brands are served up an already-curated, pre-whittled score of options on a petrol-doused platter. The longlist is the shortlist.

Hackett approached Sainz Jr. specifically for a number of reasons, explains Blenkinsop. “Firstly, his personal style resonated very strongly with our target consumers. It’s also often been said that Carlos possesses a ‘resilient and persevering character’ — which many Hackett consumers can personally relate to and admire.”

Such admiration — exaltation, even — has historically been reserved for actors-turned-brand ambassadors (Hackett has previously worked with both Pierce Brosnan and Matthew Goode). At the Met Gala, one of Hamilton’s co-chairs is Oscar-nominated actor Colman Domingo, and both Zendaya and Chris Hemsworth co-chaired in 2024. But Hollywood itself is also increasingly taking notice of Formula One, with this summer’s Brad Pitt-starring F1 the biggest budget film ever sanctioned by the sporting body. The fictional team portrayed in the film, APXGP, will be ‘sponsored’ by Tommy Hilfiger, with the label’s logo liveried onto the on-screen cars of both Pitt and co-star Damson Idris (who has been signed as a Tommy Hilfiger ambassador in real life). Case in point as to how far the phenomenon has gone: Idris arrived at the 2025 Met Gala wearing an APXGP F1 driving suit and bejewelled helmet, which was whipped off to dramatically reveal a Tommy Hilfiger suit beneath.

Lewis Hamilton famously began collaborating with Tommy Hilfiger in 2018, and has since launched five Tommy x Lewis collections. This partnership inspired other drivers to flex their own creative muscles and, while Hamilton remains the only driver to create his collections in partnership with an established designer, Lando Norris, Oliver Bearman, Oscar Piastri and more have independently launched their own apparel lines.

Tommy Hilfiger and Damson Idris at the Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024

Charles Leclerc wearing Puma for Ferrari

This personal merch tends to be more casual, technical and athleisurewear-led (think hoodies and caps) than the pieces produced by luxury sponsors, as Blenkinsop notes: “Technology has evolved, and it’s something that has had an impact in both our industries for a long time. In Formula One, technological advancements mean higher top speeds and faster cornering speeds. In menswear, technology has helped with the creation of new and innovative fabrics, and new and more conscious ways of designing.”

Leclerc, for example, recently signed a deal with sportswear giant Puma, and Verstappen with AlphaTauri. Castore began its sponsorship of Oracle Red Bull in 2024 — and Alpine from January. While these sporting apparel brands may be less red carpet-ready, the partnerships are just as lucrative as those with Boss or Armani (Castore’s deals were estimated to be somewhere in excess of £150 million).

Tommy Hilfiger’s offerings walk this line, with Hamilton wearing a hand-beaded, high-fashion Tommy Jeans look to last year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, but the designer also supplying workaday uniforms to the F1 Academy, a racing series designed to develop young female drivers. The American brand even dresses up-and-coming racer Nerea Martí, both on and off the track. “They always put me in outfits that I’m comfortable with,” Martí said of her ambassadorship last year. “They do a really good job. And it’s amazing to be at events like New York Fashion Week.”

Hilfiger himself grew up just 30 minutes from Watkins Glen, the original home of the US Grand Prix, and his brand has been involved with the sport since it first sponsored Lotus in 1991. But it’s the Hamilton collaborations that really poured fuel on the fashion-in-Formula One frenzy. Despite past drivers, whether James Hunt or Ayrton Senna, being considered ‘well-dressed’, Hamilton was the first to explicitly use the pit lane as a runway. He showed both sides just how lucrative, creative and mutually beneficial their partnerships could be — and so it tracks that he’s been tipped to be the first driver to co-chair the Met Gala.

And, even though the seven-time world champion left Mercedes for Ferrari last year, his old team still acknowledges his contribution to Formula One’s fashion-forward future. “Hamilton was, of course, key to our original approach to fashion,” says Richard Sanders. “He had an affinity and passion for it. That led the way for a greater recognition of fashion within the sport, and other drivers following and showing off their own styles.”

Read more: How the watch world fell in love with Formula One